By ARTHUR WARNER-KAMSLER
NEW YORK – Playing as a ranked team for the first time since 2011, No. 24 St. John’s avoided a letdown from Saturday’s win at Syracuse and beat Fairleigh Dickinson, 74-52, Wednesday night at Carnesecca Arena.
D’Angelo Harrison led the way for the Red Storm (7-1) with 26 points, 17 of which came in the second half.
“We just looked at it as another game,” Harrison said. ”Just another opportunity to get better.”
This is the first time any player on the St. John’s roster has played on a Top 25 team in college. While it is an honor, the players feel like they have more to accomplish.
“Its just a ranking, that’s what people think,“ junior big man Chris Obekpa said. “We have to show people what we think of ourselves.”
“Its good that people are finally noticing,” Harrison added. “But we are not done yet.”
Over the course of the game the Red Storm showed off their balance with five players, Harrison, Obekpa, Sir’Dominic Pointer, Phil Greene, and Rysheed Jordan, having stretches where they were the team’s best player. Those five players combined to score 72 of St. John’s 74 points, grabbed all but six of the teams rebounds, and had all of the Red Storm’s assists, blocks, and steals.
“Anybody can step up every night,” Obekpa said. “You can’t guard everybody.”
The biggest reason for St John’s being ranked was the team’s win over 69-57 win at the Carrier Dome, the first for the program since 1999. In that game Greene was key for St. John’s, scoring 11 straight points late to secure the win. Against FDU he again paced the team; only he did so early instead of late.
Greene scored 12 of his 16 points in the first half, and most of those came when the rest of the team was struggling to score. Greene has now scored at least 16 points in three of his last four games.
“He’s seeing a big basket right now,” head coach Steve Lavin said. “He probably feels like he could drop kick it in right now.
St. John’s will look to continue to prove just how good they can be when they play Fordham on Sunday, in The Madison Square Garden Holiday Festival. Rutgers meets Manhattan in the first game at noon.
Photo: St. John’s
